7 Shocking Facts About How Dangerous the Mumbai Coastal Roads Can Be!

The plan of Maharashtra government for constructing a 34 km long coastal road might seem to be a good one considering the landscape of Mumbai, but it is definitely going to face a lot of consequences in the long run. The plan is to create a freeway that will join Nariman point with Kandivali. Check out the different factors that can cause immense harm for the city of Mumbai and its inhabitants in this 12000 crore project.

The plan claims to provide a way that can carry almost 120000 cars everyday by the end of the year 2019. But the core assumption needs to be considered. The number of private cars in Mumbai Metropolitan region has been growing by 2% and the figure is going to rise from 139 cars per 100 persons to 243 cars per 1000 individuals.

Now, the parking space in New York is between four to eight spaces per car. But, assuming Mumbai is able to offer three parking spaces per car, still it needs 60 sq meter of space per car for off the street parking. According to an estimate, the number of cars by 2043 is going to be at least 3.4 million, which will require 20412 hectares of land for just parking. In other words, the city needs to remove the net plot FSI of 1.4 just for the sake of car parking. Surprised? There are more to come.

The coastal road is going to cause disruption within the coastal communities and loss of livelihood. It will increase in pollution due to the growth of traffic and also the costs on the city due to scarcity of parking requirements shall definitely cause immense larger environmental impacts.

The construction of coastal road needs to cut down the 27 hectares of mangroves, and such deforestation will lead to uncontrollable floods in the city of Mumbai. The mangrove forests were a natural dam to the city. Also the fish breeding will be disturbed.

Roads in any place are actually a public resource and it cannot be denied that this resource is gradually diminishing. This public resource is going to be devoted for the private transports to satisfy the need of a small percentage of population.

The recovery of this huge investment will be attained through the toll taxes, but inequality prevails here also. Increasing the tolls will reduce the number of users and thus, the toll collections shall return just a fraction of the total investment. According to estimation, 1.5% of the overall amount can be retrieved by toll taxes.

So basically, we are paying off the government for financing such projects so that instead of reducing our discomfort, the car owners can get joyrides around the city. Guys, here are the factors that are really disastrous regarding the coastal road in Mumbai.

As fellow Mumbaikars, or just somebody who loves the city, if you have any any feedback or suggestions to help improve the city, please do share your comments with us.